High cube 40-foot containers are stealing a march on traditional 40-foot equipment and by the end of 2013 represented just short of 50 percent of the maritime container fleet, according to Drewry's recently published Container Census report.

The overall fleet of maritime 40-foot high cube containers grew by more than seven percent in 2013, a much faster pace than the global container fleet whose growth was limited to just 4.3 percent.

“Gains made in the maritime standard fleet came wholly at the expense of standard 40-foot equipment, whose count continued to decline, although the 20-foot share held stable at about a third,” said Andrew Foxcroft, editor of Drewry’s Container Census report. “These long-term changes in the fleet composition are predicted to continue through 2014-17.”